Import Hands-on: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

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Impressions and media from the final import release.

By IGN Staff

Square Enix's first GameCube effort at last arrived to Japan earlier today, signaling the long awaited return of Final Fantasy to a Nintendo console. Of course, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles isn't your garden variety Final Fantasy game. With the final import version of the game in hand, we're at last able to see what the game is all about.

You've all heard the story by now. The world of Crystal Chronicles is covered by a poisonous mist (which we like to call "Death Mist"). People of the world use special crystals to protect their immediate surroundings from the threat of the mist, allowing them to live an otherwise normal life. These crystals require a special form of water to keep them powered. Once full of the water, the crystals remain active for a year.

In Crystal Chronicles, you play as a member of a Crystal Caravan that travels the world in search of the special water. Throughout the game, you'll travel to various regions of the world in your caravan, defeating enemies and bosses that block you from the special trees which house the treasured water.

Things begin right off the bat with your bidding farewell to your family as you take leave of your home town. Aside from this, there doesn't seem to be too much in the way of storytelling with this game. Different from other Final Fantasy titles, you won't find lengthy CG sequences unraveling some world-reaching plot. In Crystal Chronicles, the emphasis seems to be on gameplay, and this is true of both single player and multiplayer modes.

Your typical Crystal Chronicles gameplay sequence consists of creating a party of travelers (this only applies in mutliplayer mode) who head out to a dungeon in search of a boss character. Defeat the boss and you collect the precious water and repeat the process in a different area of the world. There are non-dungeon areas such as towns and rest areas where you can interact with other characters, but this interaction seems to be limited to merely upgrading weapons and so-forth.

FF:CC Blowout!IGN Insiders have access to exclusive screens and videos, a detailed breakdown of the multiplayer mode, a side-by-side video showing off the GBA link-up, high-res movies and so much more.

Connecting individual areas of the world is an overhead map about which you move your wagon by selecting a location. As your wagon moves between points, the game will occasionally interrupt you for an event sequence in which you'll encounter other caravans, who'll offer you items and help, and even bandits who'll steal your items. We're not sure what the conditions are for encountering events on the overhead map -- it seems like there could be some randomness involved, so not everyone will have the same exact gaming experience. All events are automatically recorded in a diary which can be read at any time. The pages of this diary forms the "Crystal Chronicles" of the title.

The real point of the game is of course in its dungeons, and we're having a good amount of fun with the game's simple battle system. The A button does just about everything, from making your character slash with his weapon to unleashing a combination move. The A button is also used for magic and item use -- you simply cycle through the different available spells and items available to you.

To actually cast a spell, you have to first have the spell in hand. You don't learn spells in Crystal Chronicles. Instead, defeated enemies will leave behind balls which contain the spells. Once you've picked up a spell, you hold down the A button to charge it up, then after having aimed with the thumb pad, unleash the spell on nearby enemies. Spells can be combined and can also be used in conjunction with spells from other players for bigger effects.

This battle system is apparently meant to be played by multiple players simultaneously, but what do you do if you're by yourself? It turns out that you're actually not alone, not even in the game's single player mode. After first leaving your town for the first time, you quickly encounter a Moogle character who'll accompany on your adventures. While in dungeons, he can be commanded to carry a crystal container around for you, a required item for protecting yourself from the death fog (you can carry it around yourself, but you'll have to put it down every time you want to fight). The Moogle in general does a good job of keeping up with you, although if you go to fast you may find yourself outside of the crystal container's protective shield, slowly incurring damage.

We're actually having fun with the game's single player mode thus far. With the overworld map and the magic system, Crystal Chronicles seems a bit different from other titles that have come before it, and that alone makes us curious as to what's in store down the road. The world seems to slowly unfold as you defeat bosses and gain new crystal elements which can then be used to brave torrential storms that block off new areas from newcomers. There also seems to be a crude time system, as our adventure is currently flagged as being in its first year.

Outside of gameplay, we found ourselves instantly attached to the game's artistic elements, from its peaceful music to its unique character designs. The game's visuals are also impressive, with a solidly constructed world and some of the best transparency, lighting and water effects we've ever seen in a game. Simple magic effects already look good enough, but the game most impresses when its screen fills up with enough effects to overload your senses. We're only a couple of hours into the game, but Crystal Chronicles could be Square Enix's best visual effort to date.

We're planning on continuing our playtime with Crystal Chronicles just to see what else the unique gameplay system has in store, along with what other forms of visual candy await once our characters have gotten super powerful. And we haven't even touched on the multiplayer aspects of the title. Head over to IGN Insider for a lot more coverage on that aspect, high-res movies, exclusive screens and much more. -- Anoop Gantayat, Contributor